Joe Scarborough Pours Cold Water on Trump Winning 51% of Iowa Vote: ‘Bad News’ for the GOP
Joe Scarborough poured a large bucket of cold water on the celebration parties of Trump supporters after Monday night’s significant victory in the Iowa caucus.
Trump easily won the first GOP presidential primary Monday night, getting 51% of the 150,000 Iowa voters who showed up in sub-zero weather. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in second with 21 % of the vote, and former UN Ambassador and former Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, earned just over 19% of the vote.
The Morning Joe insisted on Tuesday morning that the primary result was “bad news” for both former President Donald Trump and the Republican party’s prospects in the 2024 general election, and he made a reasonably compelling argument why.
“I want to look at this another way,” Scarborough said. “If Barack Obama took four years off and then ran in a Democratic caucus in Iowa, would 50% of Democrats vote against Barack Obama? No, no. They wouldn’t.”
“The fact that Donald Trump has 50% of Republicans not voting for him — and, as Steve Kornacki said, one-third hating him in the state of Iowa,” he continued. “We can all sit here and, you know, put on sackcloth and ashes and, and moan about Donald Trump getting 51% of the vote. Got to say, for people who actually want to win general elections, that’s not good news.”
John Heilemann correctly noted how this election differs from past elections because, in many ways, Trump never stopped campaigning for a second term, going as far back as 2021.
“Trump getting over 50 was an achievement for him in terms of proving that he has the majority of the Republican Party, at least here in Iowa,” Heillemann said. “But it is a sign that there continues to be this large…the Republicans know him really well. And there may still not be enough of a hunger to depose Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, but there is a large hunger in the party for people who want to oppose Donald Trump.”
“I understand what people are saying, although they will look at the polls right now,” Scarborough followed. “I’ll look at the polls and, you know, next year around the election time.”
“50% of people voting in the Iowa caucuses against a former president is bad news for that party’s prospects in the general election,” he concluded. “Not good news.”
Watch above via MSNBC.